The invention relates to a process for feeding blanks of packaging material to a folding unit, especially to a folding turret, for the wrapping of articles or groups of articles, the blanks being severed from a continuous web of material by knives of rotating knife rollers and being fed to the folding turret or to a transfer roller preceding the latter. The invention relates, furthermore, to an apparatus for producing blanks and feeding them to a folding unit.
Blanks for the wrapping of articles are often produced, in packaging machines, by severing a roll of material and by feeding them directly to a folding unit, especially a folding turret. This applies, above all, to the processing of blanks from (plastic) film material. The blanks are conventionally severed from the web of material, during the predominantly continuous conveyance of the latter, by rotating knife rollers having severing knives and counter knives and are fed, by means of likewise rotating conveyor members, to a peripheral surface of the folding turret in the region of a pocket for receiving the articles. In a pushing-in station, the articles to be wrapped are each pushed in the radial direction into a pocket of the folding turret, thereby being partially wrapped in the blank. The feed of the articles to be wrapped, on the one hand, and the severing and delivery of the blanks, on the other hand, are coordinated with one another.
When there is a temporary interruption in the feed of articles to the folding turret, the uninterrupted production of blanks and their delivery to the folding turret lead to considerable disruption in the operating cycle.